Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Review

The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 has again proved that the best way to success is to take a great recipe and perfect it year after year. And Microsoft is using this same method. Microsoft has perfected this product in past three years by tweaking it what lacks in every attempt.

If you haven’t yet seen a Surface Pro or if you are not aware of the multimillion dollar campaign that Microsoft has been running since the launch of the first surface pro, let me tell you that they designed this tablet to replace your laptop. It runs on Microsoft Windows 10 operating system and this allows you to execute and operate any windows application that actually exists along with all the apps from the Windows store.

This incredible adoptability puts this device in a very different and batter position then the Apple iPad Pro which can only run iOS applications. This is a very powerful laptop replacement that you can use in your business environment to run any windows application, browse through networks and executing other file operations. It is also capable of running causal games and watching Netflix for your entertainment.

This laptop replacement is built with the latest Intel Skylake Core i5-6300U processor. And if you need more processing power you also can advance it to an i7 processor. If you don’t have any heavy usage Microsoft also offers this power slate with a Core m3 processor.

Design and Build Quality

The Microsoft Surface 4 Pro is designed very beautifully and has a solid build quality. We can surely say that you will get a value for money product. The quality of the product is as food as the iPad Pro if you compare.

It comes with a kickass kickstand that you can adjust to almost any angle for your convenience. This is to give you ease and comfort while working with it and it also looks nice. This also increase the usability of this device. And if you are not using it with a keyboard in your lap you can angle it back to normal. The angling thing makes it batter then the iPad’s keyboard that you cannot adjust like this one.

Google has made a significant attempt in its Pixel C’s keyboard it still lacks backlighting and a touch pad. This disadvantages are removed in the Surface Pro which makes it a batter product then the Pixel C.

The body of this device is same as Surface 3 which is integrated with USB 3.0, a microSD slot, and a mini display port. Yet Microsoft has’t integrated USB type-C which they should have done. This means that we are stuck a power connector with wired property. May be they will tweak this in their next model.

They have implemented a nice design element with few magnates on the left side, this will hold the Surface Pen and this also looks very nice. It is not stron as an internal docking slot but you will not complain about where to put the Pen.

Overall, the design and build quality has a very premium standard and it definitely has the gold standards. The tablet looks good, feels good just like a high quality product.

Type Cover

The surface Pro 3 had a nice Type Cover and one can definitely type on it for hours comfortably, but we are happy to get back on a proper keyboard. Microsoft has added the needed rigidity to the cover and it’s actually a bit hard to bend cover, this means that the keyboard will stick to its place and will not bounce. You might find the keys of the keyboard a bit clicky but it is a nice experience to type on it.

Microsoft also has improved the trackpad. The size of it is a little bit bigger than the previous one. It comes with a glass o it which gives a nice feel when you use it. The trackpad works very efficiently and you will not fell the need to have a mouse instate while using it. The function key has now a function lock facility that was lacking in the previous version. The backlight of the keyboard has also been improved and it looks much better now.

The Type Cover also has a fingerprint ID. This was only available in the US when the device was launched but now it’s also available in UK with the price of £135 inc VAT which is definitely not cheap. It works very efficiently and the procedure to enroll a fingerprint is same as the touch ID on iPad and iPhone. This will directly unlock the device as soon as you touch on it without waking the device.

Display

The display of this device has gathered much attention. Like the previous device this device also has a ten point touchscreen which is really accurate and fast. The Surface Pro 4 offers the resolution of 2736×1824 pixels with the pixel density of 267 ppi. The brightness of the device display is at 388cd/m2 when contrast ratio is 1218:1. This makes the display result brilliant in true meaning.

The color accuracy is also superb. The display has archived the Delta E score of 1.61. If you do not know about what Delta E is, it is the measurement of how far away is the color from perfect. Therefore lower score means batter score. The sRGB gamut score is about 97.5% which is absolutely fantastic. Therefore if you need a laptop to do color critical work then this one is just perfect for you. And you will definitely love its display performance.

Performance and Battery Life

When it comes to a mobile device battery life and performance not always goes hand in hand. If you need a device with powerful performance, long battery life, and cool this all cannot be archived as the laws of thermodynamics are inevitable. Therefore some compromises has to be made.

The compromises Microsoft has made in this device are pretty much reasonable and it also reminds us of the previous Surface Pro 3. It is faster than this year’s MacBook Air, but our battery test results shows that it will last for about 7 hrs and 40 minutes. In real life scenario with normal usage it might last for 8 hrs but not full day. Although it is quite reasonable and enough for most of the people.

Many of the users have reported that the device consumes more battery power then it should in the sleep time which is a bad news. But the good news is that Microsoft has already started working on a driver update addressing this issue and hopefully this will pretty much solves this issue.

Finally overall performance of this device is very much impressive and battery life lags a bit but it will improve when the new driver update rolls out.

Verdict

We very much liked the previous Surface Pro 3 after a decent use last year. The new Surface Pro 4 is an improvement to the previous version and we have to say that it is built well, looks good and performs batter. It is a complete value for money product and if you are looking forward to buy one you can go ahead and make the decision. This power slate will not disappoint you at any point.